Wilmington police take aim at mobile training center

WILMINGTON -- When the Police Department conducts its annual firearms training, officers usually need to travel to Bedford, Harvard or North Andover to use a range.

This week, though, they're in an armored steel trailer in a parking lot, firing live ammunition at video footage on a self-healing rubber screen, while a thermal camera assesses if they've hit their target.

The high-tech Middlesex County Sheriff's Office Mobile Training Unit, in town this week for Wilmington's 48 officers to receive firearms training while on-duty, is an upgrade from what Chief Michael Begonis experienced when he entered law enforcement 25 years ago.

Begonis remembers shooting at hand-cranked paper targets in a range in the Police Department's basement.

"If there were people downstairs shooting, you could not only hear it when you were at your desk, but see the smoke rising from the floor," he said.

Unlike shooting in a range, which Begonis said is "basically marksmanship training," the mobile training center uses video to present 120 different scenarios with different settings and outcomes.

In one, a suspect runs into a dark field after a nighttime armed robbery. Depending on the way corrections officers controlling the video run the clip, the suspect either complies with the officer's command to surrender, or pulls a gun.

The different outcomes allow the officers to work not only on their shooting, but on communication and cover tactics as well, Begonis said.

Middlesex County Sheriff Peter Koutoujian said that while some of the training scenarios can be disturbing, like an active shooter in a school or a pregnant woman threatening to kill her husband, these are real-life situations officers must be prepared for.

"These are the things they have to stop," he said.

After December's mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., Koutoujian said one of the first things he thought about was how this type of training could help first responders in such a situation.

He said the sheriff's office didn't see an increase in demand for the training center after that, but only because "it's so sought after already."

"We're booked until June," Koutoujian said.

The trailer was used by 30 agencies last year, training almost 1,100 officers, Koutoujian said.

The mobile unit was in Tewksbury last week, and will be in Billerica next.

Purchased for $475,000 by the sheriff's office in 2010, the only cost for local departments is the diesel fuel needed to run the trailer.

Begonis said his department conducts firearms training annually, along with training in various different areas including car stops, domestic violence, building searches and defensive tactics.

Last year, the department completed training in issues related to human trafficking, with an emphasis of seeing those involved as victims rather than criminals.

"It develops every year," Begonis said. "Whatever the hot-button issue is, we take that on."

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